3.1 | MAIN RESULTS
Table 1 summarizes mean scores of COVID-19 cases and deaths in Pakistan
during lockdown and post-lockdown-lifting periods. Columns 1-3 in Table
1 show mean scores during three different time periods (that is first
four-weeks of lockdown and last four-weeks of lockdown, and four-weeks
after lockdown lifting). Column 4 lists differences in mean values (of
all variables) between first four-weeks under lockdown and four-weeks
after lockdown lifting. The last column shows mean differences between
last four-weeks under lockdown and four-weeks after lockdown lifting. It
is noteworthy to note that the mean differences of all variables of
study, i.e., total confirmed cases, daily new cases, total deaths, and
daily new deaths exhibit significant rise after lockdown lifting when
compared with the mean scores of first and last four-weeks after
lockdown implementation. Table 1 indicates that the number of total
confirmed cases of COVID-19 has increased sixteen times from lockdown
average of 3240.39 (first four-weeks) to 52939.71 (after lockdown
lifting). The average of daily new cases also increased from 249.50 to
2264.71, depicting an increase of nine times. Total deaths and daily new
deaths also increase from 49.60 to 1117.71 (twenty-two times) and 5.00
to 44.42 (nine times), respectively. There are also significant
differences in the means of all variables during lockdown (last
four-weeks) and after lockdown lifting periods. All the variables are
statistically significant at 0.01 level.
………[Insert Table 1 ]………
Since the epidemic has started in Pakistan, the government is utilizing
its resources to increase COVID-19 testing capacity across the country.
Thus, it is important to note that the gradual increase in testing
capacity may have significant contributions in the identification of
daily new cases which would be ultimately reflected in the total
confirmed cases. Given this belief, we performed paired t tests after
normalizing raw variables by COVID-19 checks performed across country.
Table 2 presents results of paired t tests based on normalized data.
Almost all the results are consistent with those based on raw variables
(Table 1) with the exception of mean differences of daily new cases and
daily new deaths (between the periods of first four-weeks of lockdown
and four-weeks after lockdown lifting), they are not statistically
significant.
………[Insert Table 2 ]………